Runaways
by heartsvilleMonarch
Summary: "One day, Arthur told everyone he'd had enough." What if Merlin and Arthur had met before The Dragons Call? Mild Merlin/Arthur.


One day, Arthur told everyone he'd had enough. He was sick of the responsibility, and duty, and his father forever telling him what to do and how to do it. He was sick of feasts, and banquets, and people never talking to him properly, just saying "Yes Sire," and walking away hurriedly. Arthur decided that he didn't want to be a prince any longer.

Of course, not many people actually listen to a whining ten year old boy, even if he is the crown prince of Camelot.

"I mean it, Emilia! I'm going to go and live in a village and be a farmer. With seven cows and a horse."  
Emilia, Arthur's nursemaid, smiled condescendingly at her young charge, and replied with, "Yes, Sire. Now, if you just stay there for a moment before you run away to the village, I'll just go and get your breakfast."

He scowled as she left. Forget waiting for a moment, he was going to the village **now.**

It didn't take long for him to get out of the castle and as soon as he was out of the gates, (which meant a nifty run around the guards) he had never felt so free before. He ran as fast as he could, not looking back.

"Merlin? Merlin! Oh, there you are, darling. What on earth are you doing?"

Hunith smiled anxiously at her son, who seemed to be concentrating very hard… on a rock. Concentrating very hard with Will, his best friend, who seemed equally determined to stare at the rock in front of them.

"I'm trying to teach Will how to move this rock," her son replied, not taking his eyes off the stone.

Will broke his eye contact.

"Sorry Merle, I just can't get it to work!"

Both boys sighed.

"It's okay, Will. I guess you just need to practice more, right?"

And with that, Merlin's eyes flashed gold and the rock flew to hit Will, (gently) in the head.

"**Merlin, **can you come with me for a minute please?" Merlin nodded at Will with an apologetic smile before trailing after his mother into the house.

"Merlin, you can't just use magic like that in broad daylight? What if someone had seen you?"

"But no-one did! We were only playing…" Hunith didn't want to shout at her little boy, but she couldn't stand the thought of anyone knowing about Merlin's "gifts." Will finding out had been bad enough.

"Merlin! It doesn't matter if you were only playing around, what if someone had seen you?"

He sniffed. "Why should I have to hide it? You always said I was special."

"Well, maybe you're a bit… **too **special!" She regretted the words as soon as she spoke them. He looked at her, mortified, and ran off.

"Merlin!"

---

Arthur didn't know how long he had been running for, but his boyish energy had run out and now he was out of breath. It was hot again, and it seemed to be midday.

He also knew nothing about his surroundings- a large, slightly spooky forest, with gnarled trees. It was silent, scarily so, and every move Arthur made seemed to sound thunderous in the empty space. He stood stock still, but still heard slow, crunching footsteps, getting louder, and louder, and louder… while he stayed silent. Tentatively he called out- "Hello?"

---

Merlin ran out of the house, horrified. Behind him, he could hear his mother calling, "Merlin! Wait!" He kept on running, almost tripping over Will who had been patiently staring at the rock, waiting for Merlin's return.

"Oi! Merle?!" Merlin ignored both of them, and carried on running. Faster and faster, until he- pop!

He found himself in a forest, large and leafy. Merlin sighed, and started to explore. This hadn't been the first time he'd disappeared and reappeared in a completely different place. Since his last birthday, it had happened when he was feeling very strong emotions. The last time it had happened, he's been having a nightmare and ended up at the top of a tree near Old Man Simmons's house.

He carried on walking, taking great care to make sure his footsteps were loud, to stop himself being scared. Merlin was stamping in piles of leaves, when he heard a voice.

"Hello?"

"Is someone there?" The voice asked again.

Merlin walked into the clearing.

"Well, I'm here. I'm Merlin," he said. The voice was coming from a boy the same age as himself, blond, with blue eyes, and a shirt with a dragon on it. He looked terrified.

----

Arthur, feeling slightly less scared now he'd figured out it was just a boy his age making the noise, and not a monster trying to eat him, thought he should probably say something, but he was too busy staring at the boy called Merlin. He had dark hair, and startlingly blue eyes, and he was smiling at Arthur like he was his best friend. What was this peasant boy doing here alone?

"I'm Art-" he stopped. He didn't want to be prince any more, did he? "I'm Owain."

Merlin didn't look fooled. "Artowan?"

"No, just Owen. What are you doing here?"

Merlin looked almost sheepish. "It's a bit hard to understand. Does your arm hurt much?"

Arthur glanced down to his arm, and there was a small cut, oozing a few meagre drops of blood. He hadn't felt it while he was running, but it was sore now the boy had pointed it out.

"I'll help, if you like," and the boy was by his side. Arthur expected him to get out a bandage or something from his little backpack, but instead, a small hand waved over the cut, and Merlin's eyes flashed gold. He stepped back and the cut had healed.

"But- how did you do that?!"

"Pff, that's baby stuff."  
"But, but, Magic is evil! You're evil!"

The boy looked hurt, and he stepped back even more. "That's mean, Owain."

"Oh. It's just that, where I come from, no one likes magic. They think it's nasty."

---

Merlin thought Owain was nice, so why did he call him evil? Hadn't he just helped him with his cut?

"Well, I'm not nasty. I don't do bad magic. Where do you come from, then?"  
"Camelot."

"Never heard of it."

"I ran away." Owain sat down cross-legged on the floor, and Merlin did the same. "Sorry for calling you evil."

"That's ok. Why did you run away?"  
The boy, Owain, smiled, and repeated Merlin's earlier words- "It's hard to understand."  
The boys studied each other for a while, before Merlin spoke.

"Do you want to play hide and seek?"

"Ok! You can hide, if you like."

Merlin ran to a bush, and could hear Owain counting. He settled down into a comfortable position, and just as Owain got down to 1, he disappeared with a- pop!

---

Arthur searched for an hour, but the mysterious Merlin had vanished without a trace.

---

"And that's the end of the story." Merlin concluded, while Arthur watched him with interest. He'd told Arthur this tale, after a short conversation about the knights.

"_What do you think of Sir Owain?"_

"_Hmm… I knew an Owain once."  
"Same one?"_

"_Nah, he was blonde. And slightly odd, I met him in a forest and never saw him again."_

"_Sounds like an interesting story. What's the rest?"_

"_Well…"_

Merlin had grown up a lot since the meeting with the strange Owain, and Camelot was now ruled by King Arthur, with Merlin his faithful Royal Advisor and friend, both letting magic back into the kingdom of Camelot.

"And you never met Owain again?"

"Never. He might still live here, for all I know." Arthur rolled his eyes as his manservant finished his tale. Was he blind? Or was Merlin actually stupid, or just plain ignorant?

"Would you want to meet him again?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Why?"

"Oh, no reason." The young king's eyes twinkled.

"Arthur…"  
"Thanks, by the way."

"For what?" Merlin asked.

"For helping me, when I was lost. Like you've done so many times before," replied Arthur, closing the exchange with a light kiss to his confused partners lips.

**Written very quickly from a rabid plotbunny attack- so if it's terrible, or if you liked it, tell me in a review!**


End file.
